Apple Hires Time Warner Cable Veteran to Cloud Services Division

Peter Stern will report to Eddy Cue, who oversees iTunes, Apple Music and other services.

Apple has hired former Time Warner Cable executive Tom Stern to work on Eddy Cue's cloud services team, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Stern, who worked at TWC as executive vp and chief product, people and strategy officer until his departure in June, will serve as vp cloud services, which encompasses iTunes, Apple Music and Apple Pay. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Stern's hire, notes that Stern had been a TWC point person during the cable company's past talks with Apple about a live TV service distributed over its Apple TV.

Apple has been rumored for years to be working on a product, perhaps a skinny bundle, that would compete with the cable industry, and Stern's hire would seem to support that they are exploring that space. But in an interview with THR in July, Cue said that he wasn't "a big fan of the skinny bundle," noting that "whether we're providing it or somebody else is, it really doesn't matter to us."

Stern spent 12 years at Time Warner Cable, holding several executive roles. Before joining the cable company, he worked for its then-parent company Time Warner, and also had a stint at consulting firm McKinsey.